This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(224.00000000000003, 53%, 31%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ESS%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
In older versions of Word I was able to insert a PDF graphic (a letter heading) into the header (as in header and footer) and use this as a letter template.
In recent versions of Word for the Mac this seems to be deprecated and results in bizarre displays where the image of the PDF is distorted, or not all of it is displayed; and this changes depending on the zoom setting.
However, the documents print fine.
As an added bonus this feature also causes problems with Word for windows where either the page of the document displays totally black or the part contains the PDF is displayed a grey background.
This appears to be a problem displaying a PDF if it is in the header. If the PDF is in the document itself or is a watermark this problem does not manifest itself.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what could be causing this problem and how it might be mitigated ? Or is this a bug for which we hope Microsoft is working on a fix ?
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Open the PDF in inkScape, then choose File>Save As. InkScape's default format is SVG.
I don't really want to use a watermark. This has failed as sending the document to another person only results in an error message that the linked file is missing. It's beyond me as to why anyone would want to make a watermarked file by inserting a graphics file and then not be able to send it to anybody because of the missing linked file residing on the sender's computer. Surely you would want the graphics file to be embedded in the document ?
What I would ideally like to do is to revert to using the header to insert a PDF as a letter head, a modus operandi that has worked for the last 20 years; but not now. Strangely.
What I do not understand is why the Word file will print (and export as a PDF) without issue but the display of the header is so erratic. Weird. And Windows users get a black document or the grey background where a part-page PDF is inserted.
There is also another mystery where the same documents work fine on my desktop Mac but not on my MacBook.
Obviously something is amiss on my laptop.
PDF is not a graphics file type & is not supported as one on the Windows platform.
The Mac OS treats PDF differently & allows inserting as a Picture using the same method as inserting standard graphics file types such as JPG, TIFF, PNG, SVG, etc.However, there is a conversion as John indicated because a PDF typicaly contain both vector & raster elements.
As I mentioned, Office automatically converts PDFs to a different format. If it converts to EMF, the result usually looks pretty good. But as I said, you have no control over which format it is converted to.
Illustrator has a very poor EMF export, which is why I recommended InkScape instead. Have you tried SVG?
I'm not clear why you are trying to insert as a watermark. Watermarks are always displayed screened back, not an effect you would want in a letterhead.
I don't really want to use a watermark. This has failed, as sending the document to another person only results in an error message that the linked file is missing. It's beyond me as to why you would want to make a watermark by inserting a graphics file and then not be able to send it to anybody because of the missing linked file residing on the sender's computer. Surely you would want the file to be embedded in the document ?
What I would ideally like to do is to revert to using the header to insert a PDF as a letter head, a modus operandi that has worked for the last 20 years; but not now. Strangely.
When you create a Watermark click the Show Options button in the Select Picture dialog then clear the check on Link to File.
An alternative in order to reduce file size is to use the Link to File option but save the image & the document in the same folder & send the entire folder to the recipient(s).
I don't really want to use a watermark. This has failed, as sending the document to another person only results in an error message that the linked file is missing. It's beyond me as to why you would want to make a watermark by inserting a graphics file and then not be able to send it to anybody because of the missing linked file residing on the sender's computer. Surely you would want the file to be embedded in the document ?
What I would ideally like to do is to revert to using the header to insert a PDF as a letter head, a modus operandi that has worked for the last 20 years; but not now. Strangely.
Sadly, Bob Jones, there is no Show options button on my Mac (latest) version of Word when inserting a picture into a watermark.
Correction. There is this button in the open dialogue but the two tick boxes 'Link to File' and 'Save with Document' are greyed out when trying to import a PDF (they are available with an image file such as a JPG).
John Korchok, I'm afraid Inkscape's interface defeated me. Despite many tries I was unable export the PDF as an SVG file.
BTW, this website is very weird. Every time I make a post it wants me to "leave the page".
Sorry if I misled you – The options are not available for PDF even though a PDF can be inserted as a Watermark. My reference was to inserting valid graphics files.
Bob. you didn't mislead me; yours was a reasonable assumption. Thank you for your suggestions; much appreciated.
While you can insert a PDF as a graphic (only in Office for Mac), that PDF is converted by the program into either a vector EMF file or as a blurry bitmap PNG. The program decides, you have no choice. The PDF file is not stored internally in the document.
The solution is to avoid PDFs. Instead, use the open-source program InkScape to convert to either EMF or SVG vector formats. Then insert that in your document headers. You get control and a better visual result.
Why did it work in earlier versions of Word and, I have discovered, on a different Mac with the same versions of Word and Mac OS, but not now on this one Mac and not in Windows ?
I tried the EMF route (converted in Illustrator) but the resulting document does not retain the page format and replaces some of the characters.
Inserting the PDF as a watermark fails to export the PDF only inserting a link. If you want to share the file, as I do, the watermark disappears and provokes an error message for the recipient. Why would you not want to send the watermark with the document ? What idiot programmed this ?
There is no option to choose to insert the PDF either as a file or as a link and the workaround on the internet (cutting and pasting in the header) simply reproduces the original issue.
Frustrating…